Watch Together is one of Plex’s main differentiators. I specifically use Plex because it provides this feature. It is the feature that I use the most with my partner… Without it, I will no longer have a need for Plex.
15 Likes
This really is terrible to see. I’m in a long distance relationship and Watch Together has been such a blessing for us. Watch Together is the only app that supports this functionality on non-web apps. It is so much more enjoyable to watch a show together on your TVs instead of sitting at your computer. I understand it will still be in the web-app, but that is the same for every other steaming service. I used to use TeleParty for Netflix, Prime, etc, but I’ve almost exclusively switched to plex because I’m able to do Watch Together with my girlfriend and we get to enjoy the couch + TV experience. This really will remove any uniqueness about Plex for me. Yes, I have my own content, but that isn’t a strong enough reason. So I might as well stop using plex since it’s more work to get my movies stream-ready and now there is no benefit of how that content is watched.
10 Likes
I’m incredibly disappointed by this decision. Watch Together is one of the most valuable features Plex offers for me and my friends, and removing it feels like a huge step backward. I have a group of 3-6 friends who use this daily, and the convenience of not having to manually sync up everyone is a massive benefit.
I understand that development takes time, but outright stating that it’s not on the roadmap at all is extremely unfortunate. I wouldn’t expect it to be ready at launch for Plex 2.0, but I do expect feature parity between the old and new Plex clients over time, just like many other products handle major upgrades.
For Plex 2.0, I’d actually love to see enhancements to Watch Together—like adding multiple episodes to a session, setting permissions (who can pause, skip, or just view), and other quality-of-life improvements.
If this feature is underutilized, that’s unfortunate, but watching over a basic screen share is no substitute for full-quality synced playback on separate TVs.
Please reconsider this decision. It doesn’t need to be in v2.0, but perhaps in v2.1 or a later update? Removing it entirely, instead of improving it, feels like a loss for the Plex community.
13 Likes
I also use Watch Together on a weekly basis with a few people. It’s a great way to stay connected with friends and get people to make their own Plex accounts. I’ll be real sad when this goes away, and it doesn’t work very well in the web app.
9 Likes
Same as everybody else. My girlfriend abroad has a TV with surround set, I have one but now we’re supposed to whip out the phone, laptop or tablet to watch a film or serie together? If this is really going to be pushed, I’ll try get a refund of my Plex Pass and get an alternative. This is obviously the most appreciated function and feature of Plex.
10 Likes
There’s nothing I can say here that hasn’t already been said in the previous posts. Here’s another vote to keep the Watch Together feature.
I’m also a Plex Pass subscriber and my family uses Watch Together regularly. Plex isn’t the first media solution/app we’ve used and it may not be the last.
8 Likes
Listen; I’m president of a software dev company. I know how hard it is to keep the lights on with just subscription revenue (I hate the introduction of ads, we will never do that - but I do understand why you’ve done so); and I’m willing to bet that you’re shuttering this feature because it involves costly TURN relays.
Be up front with why you’re cutting the feature, don’t try and pretend it isn’t valuable to your users or that you’re somehow doing them a favour by cutting it out. Your users don’t care much about how fast and easy it will be for you to introduce new features; they care a lot about losing access to existing features.
I’d strongly suggest you reconsider this one. Put it behind a plex pass; promise it on the development roadmap; but don’t just cut it. Every time you pull something like this, you will bleed users to competitors; and since your competitors are free open source software, features are your ONLY moat. Think about it.
19 Likes
I had to create a forum account just to add my voice to the great displeasure over this announcement.
If Watch Together is truly going away, then Plex is going away for me, my friends, and my family. I’m a paying Plex Pass customer who will become a former customer as quickly as I can transition away from Plex, specifically due to this really awful decision.
10 Likes
I agree. I met a wonderful woman but she lives far away and one of our activities is watching films together and discussing them. I paid for the lifetime subscription and this the feature I like most. I hope Plex reconsiders or another option comes up to watch films together. Before this, the only gripe was bad audio issues from multi-channel files, but taking Watch Together away is a huge mistake.
9 Likes
Removing watch together is honestly going to go down as the worst idea that Plex has ever had right behind cutting ties with tidal.
The only reason I even bought my lifetime pass was because of watch together! I then found use for the other features like the tv recorder and tidal integration!
By removing this feature Plex is effectively removing what made it unique. The fact that it’s not a screenshare but instead a proper syncing system like that of Synctube makes it the supior option to watch shows and movies with my loved ones that live in enire other countries. While its unlikely that I will request a refund for a fumble this hard. I WILL stop recommending plex to use with my friends and others who need or want self hosted media databases.
9 Likes
What a sad announcement! While I don’t use the feature daily it has proven to be invaluable to me and my partner when either of us is traveling. Trying to match timestamps was such a hassle. Removing really useful functions is such a disappointment.
11 Likes
My experience is similar to the ones posted here, so I’ll just be brief. If Plex is done with the Watch Together feature, I’m done with Plex.
11 Likes
Watch Together is a important feature for a lot of people. That it works for now in the web version does not really make it better if it still gets removed at some point.
9 Likes
We use this feature daily.
8 Likes
Man this was one of the great features of plex our family regularly use. Some of them are in different states & watch together is the only thing that brought us together to enjoy the films we love
10 Likes
The loss of this feature would be a big step to me considering other services. Please consider holding off on the app overhaul until this can be incorporated.
11 Likes
I use this feature near every night in my household and at least once a week with family members outside of my house. Please put some reconsideration into keeping this great future. Here’s my vote.
11 Likes
There is zero reason to remove this beneficial feature for those who rely on it. Please reconsider your stance and DONT remove the Watch Together feature. A product/service should be improved upon, with features added, not removed. This is regression, not progression.
8 Likes
Looks like all their replies have been copied and pasted because I recieved the exact same response. So it’s evidence that Plex just really do not care about their users or their concerns. Absolutely infuriating and beyond belief.
8 Likes
